Biggles dans le désert (Aredit comic)
Biggles dans le désert is the 18th in the Biggles Artima/Aredit comics series. It was published in Jan 1967, drawn by Roger Melliès. Synopsis This album is not to be confused with a book of the same title published in French by Presses de la cite. The latter is a translation of Biggles Sweeps the Desert. This album includes three Biggles short stories in comic strip form. None of them relate to Sweeps the Desert: *Biggles dans le désert - surprisingly and confusingly, this is not an adaptation of Biggles Sweeps the Desert. It is an adaptation of The Adventure of the Counterfeit Crusaders. *Le crocodile parlant - an adaptation of The Adventure of the Crooning Crocodile *Contrebande - an adaptation of The Case of the Black Sheep The cover artwork depicts a dogfight between two Second World War fighters. This does not relate to any of the stories in the album. Plot ''(Click on expand to read) The album comrpises 5 short stories over 130 pages. Story 1 - Biggles dans le désert This title story is not an adaptation of Biggles Sweeps the Desert. It is in fact a reasonably faithful adaptation of The Adventure of the Counterfeit Crusaders from Biggles - Charter Pilot. The preamble is different. There is no discussion with Bertie about the German army taking over Rostov. Biggles and friends are looking at a painting of a crusader and this leads to a discussion with Dr Augustus Duck about the lost crusaders. Baku as a jump off point for the expedition is not mentioned. All the other plot elements are faithfully depicted: the ex-Persian court astrologer and his "Ali Baba" cave, the news courier, Ginger's laying of a trail of paper balls. The only difference lies in the way Biggles defeats the fake crusaders. In the original, he shoots one of them just as he is about to shoot Algy, Ginger and Duck. In this comic, he drops a fishing net over the crusaders and traps them. Story 2 - Le crocodile parlant ''Le crocodile parlant (The Talking Crocodile) is an adaptation of The Adventure of the Crooning Crocodile from Biggles - Charter Pilot. There is no preambular section involving Ginger relaxing with the 666 Sqn pilots which serves as the setting for Ginger to tell the story. Otherwise, the comic is faithful to the original in most aspects, right down to the account of the three witnesses, Major Kilton, Monsieur Boulenger (who is not named) and the reporter Davis. At the end of the story, the crocodile trickster is not delivered to the authorities as in the original. Instead, during the confrontation with the native villagers, he seizes the moment and escapes by diving into the lagoon. Story 3 - Contrebande This is a fairly faithful adaptation of The Case of the Black Sheep from ''Biggles Air Detective. Story 4 - L'île était déserte A non-Biggles story about the war in the Pacific during the Second World War. Story 5 - Le mystère de Larchmont A non-Biggles story featuring the character Dan Matthews. Research Notes Category:Derivative works